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Ethics in building app/company with friend's idea
Whitesky
subscriber Posts: 2
Hello, here is my dilemma. So my good friend of nearly 18 years recently approached me with an idea for a mobile app, which he has been fairly convinced would make it to a very popular level.
With myself being an experienced web developer, designer, marketer, and programmer, he's been asking for my advice on these topics. Throughout our conversations however, I've come to believe his idea may indeed be lucrative and am leaning towards possibly getting involved in making it happen.
However, being an experienced developer, it also occurred to me in our talks that I could technically build, design, partially program, and bring to market this entire idea sole-handedly if I really chose to (perhaps with some outsourcing and management). I'm not sure what the role of my friend would even be, as he has no capital or technical skills, only the idea and a willingness to help.
I've gone through several startups in the past where the partnership came under stress due to me taking on the brunt of the workload and the other members' roles becoming increasingly in question, so this is definitely a huge concern for me.
And finally, it has just turned out that this idea isn't my friend's own idea either, but rather of his other friend (who I only peripherally know), and who is already interested in contacting me to discuss percentages of ownership and profit. This third person, in my opinion, would have literally nothing to bring to the table in such a project, other than having thought of it.
I don't honestly see what these two people could possibly do in such a business, yet creating their idea myself would seem ethically out of the question.
I am very interested in pursuing this idea, but would love to hear any opinions on how to ethically proceed under such a situation.
Thanks,
With myself being an experienced web developer, designer, marketer, and programmer, he's been asking for my advice on these topics. Throughout our conversations however, I've come to believe his idea may indeed be lucrative and am leaning towards possibly getting involved in making it happen.
However, being an experienced developer, it also occurred to me in our talks that I could technically build, design, partially program, and bring to market this entire idea sole-handedly if I really chose to (perhaps with some outsourcing and management). I'm not sure what the role of my friend would even be, as he has no capital or technical skills, only the idea and a willingness to help.
I've gone through several startups in the past where the partnership came under stress due to me taking on the brunt of the workload and the other members' roles becoming increasingly in question, so this is definitely a huge concern for me.
And finally, it has just turned out that this idea isn't my friend's own idea either, but rather of his other friend (who I only peripherally know), and who is already interested in contacting me to discuss percentages of ownership and profit. This third person, in my opinion, would have literally nothing to bring to the table in such a project, other than having thought of it.
I don't honestly see what these two people could possibly do in such a business, yet creating their idea myself would seem ethically out of the question.
I am very interested in pursuing this idea, but would love to hear any opinions on how to ethically proceed under such a situation.
Thanks,
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